Rated of 5
by Jerry P. (Santa Rosa, CA) The Orphan Master's Son
I have mixed emotions regarding Adam Johnson's book. He is an excellent writer and thoroughly researched his subject - the clandestine country of North Korea and its people. He artfully portrayed the effects of living in an autocracy (e.g., the people became like robots.) I was reminded of the purges that occurred in the USSR under Joseph Stalin when I read about the torture the main character endured in prison and then had the unsettling realization that this country has a nuclear capability.
It took me a while to get accustomed to the lack of continuity between chapters especially the differing time periods and the incredible changes in the main character. I also keep reviewing what I had already read to keep on track.
Rated of 5
by Maggie P. (Mount Airy, MD) A Different World
The Orphan Master's Son grabs you from the start. Transported to the world of North Korea, the reader is intrigued to see what Pak Jun Do encounters next. Both a love story and a thriller, this book keeps the reader on the edge of their seat.
Rated of 5
by Deborah M. (Chambersburg, PA) Takes Readers to a Place They've Never Been
Johnson takes us inside a country that most of us know little about: contemporary North Korea. We're all familiar with the soundbites from the news that describe a monomaniacal dictator who places personal power above the welfare of his people. But Johnson shows what it must be like to live--no, SURVIVE--within the justified paranoia engendered in such a place. The sweeping plot follows the titular protagonist, Jun Do, through his rise in the ranks by both dedication and devious means. It's a thriller, a mystery, a love story; there's something here for everyone. What will stay with me most after reading this novel is the sense of what it must be like to live with gut-wrenching fear on a day-to-day basis. To feel that no one can be trusted; to feel that you're constantly under scrutiny; to feel afraid to love, to hope, to dream--all of the things that make us human. This is a complex book, but one definitely worth the effort.
Rated of 5
by Katherine Y. (Albuquerque, NM) Compelling Story, Wanted to Get Inside the Characters More
While the writing was excellent and the story fascinating and complicated, I wanted more characterization. I felt the story wasn't as powerful because, the events of the story overshadowed the actual people experiencing them.
Rated of 5
by Linda P. (MEDFORD, WI) Not My Cup of Tea
Adam Johnson is a very good writer. I just didn't enjoy his novel. I thought I would enjoy it by it's blurb, but I was wrong. I'm sure The Orphan Master's Son will appeal to many, but it left me feeling sad. Enough said.
Rated of 5
by Betsey V. (Austin, TX) A minefield of a fable, myth and realism combined
Adam Johnson writes with authority about the essentially unknown North Korean culture and civilization. Kim Jong Il's force-fed propaganda controls the people so consummately that their identities are squeezed from their minds and replaced with a state-sponsored life and perspective. The life of a North Korean is not the pursuit of happiness or self-actualization. It is solely to survive, like an insect or a rodent. To live, you must become a shell, an unquestionably loyal nationalist.
What Johnson realizes so well in his debut novel are the conflicts, confrontations, and abysses between the self that has been annihilated and the social structure that replaces the self. Every word you utter is weighed, and could be twisted as subversive. You are subjected to daily propaganda reports through loudspeakers connected to your house. People are traumatized from the cradle to the grave, and your individual thoughts are a threat to your security and safety. You are raised to be a complete subject of the state, and to wear the skin of trauma that is inflicted daily.
Jun Do is a survivor of famine and abandonment. His father ran an orphanage, and Jun Do was expected to impersonate an orphan from an early age. His strength, talents, and stamina lead him along an epic path. From his high seas and espionage adventures on a fishing vessel, where he develops his first chosen father-son emotional relationship, to the deprivations and torture of the prison mines, to the corrupt corridors of power, where his skill of impersonation becomes his sword and precarious shield, Jun Do's life literally morphs into a fabled one. He learns to act alone, and yet to connect with the hearts of others.
"Today, tomorrow...A day is nothing. A day is just a match you strike after the ten thousand matches before it have gone out," says the tragic, beautifully wounded actress, Sun Moon, who has made persona an art, and who once captured the hearts of all the citizens, including her husband, Commander Ga. Jun Do's transformations, internal and external, bring him squarely into the receptacles of Commander Ga, Sun Moon, and the "Dear Leader" himself.
This postmodern novel is told via stunning juxtapositions, between the controllers and subjects of a treacherous society and the inner will of the individual. The historical context is authentic, complex, layered, and detailed. Chapters alternate between Jun Do and a nameless interrogator, which progress to an operatic denouement. This isn't the kind of novel that grabs you immediately; there are many ambiguities and inchoate events that build gradually, stone by stone, erecting an explosive story that tunnels through the doom of a raw reality, to a bloodletting myth, and into the chambers of a sequestered heart.
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of 5
by Jerry P. (Santa Rosa, CA) 
of 5
by Maggie P. (Mount Airy, MD) 
of 5
by Linda P. (MEDFORD, WI) 
